G8 opens with display of harmony

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World leaders showcased a new harmony on Iraq today as they gathered for their annual summit, but prickly issues remained over both Iraq and President George W Bush's plan to promote democracy across the wider Middle East.

Bush claimed victory ahead of the Security Council's resounding 15-0 endorsement today of a US resolution on Iraq. But his administration lowered expectations of gaining other countries' military support - one of the original goals.

"I expect nations to contribute as they see fit," Bush said as he met with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at the start of the Group of Eight summit.

Of the powerful countries attending the summit on this secluded coastal resort island, only the United States, Britain, Italy and Japan have troops in Iraq. Japan's noncombat troops perform humanitarian missions.

Germany, France, Canada and Russia do not have troops in Iraq, and have said they will not send forces.

The summit was to formally open with a social dinner this evening, but Bush first had scheduled meetings with Koizumi, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Heads of state arrived one after the other at an Army airfield near Savannah and were taken by helicopter to Sea Island, an eight-kilometre long private resort island that has been virtually sealed off from the mainland by barricades and fences.

The Security Council's endorsement of the Iraq resolution was an important victory for Bush at the summit's start, taking the sting out of recent disagreements with European countries.

Schroeder, who drove himself in a golf cart to his meeting with Bush, said the UN resolution was "a good foundation for enhancing stability" in the region.

But Bush's proposal to promote democracy in the Middle East has run into resistance from both European and Arab countries, with some governments saying it amounts to American interference.

Turkey's prime minister said the plan's success depends on resolving conflicts in Iraq and between Israel and the Palestinians.

"Solving the Israeli-Palestinian problem is an urgent matter above everything else," Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Ankara before leaving for the summit.

"As long as we don't solve these problems, as long as we don't achieve these, it won't be easy to implement the project," he said.

Anticipating such criticism, American officials said the document presented at the summit will include a firm rejection of the idea that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must stall democratic and human rights reforms.

Canada's Martin voiced support for Bush's initiative and rejected suggestions that it was a US attempt to deflect attention from the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. "Everybody wants to ease the tensions in the Middle East," he said.

At their meeting, Koizumi told Bush he had detected a slight warming to the idea of North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons, according to a senior US administration official who briefed several hundred reporters on condition of anonymity.

Koizumi recently met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, and publicly he expressed optimism about breaking the impasse, although he cited "hard and difficult conditions".

Koizumi won no concessions from Bush on another sensitive issue involving North Korea. Tokyo wants the United States to give "special consideration," and possibly amnesty, to Charles Robert Jenkins, an alleged US Army deserter who married a Japanese woman in North Korea. His wife was kidnapped by North Korean agents in 1978, but was allowed to return to her homeland two years ago.

While Iraq and the Middle East overshadowed this year's agenda, summit participants yesterday announced agreement on fighting famine on the Horn of Africa, eradicating polio, cutting poverty and developing an HIV vaccine.

Arriving in the United States, Schroeder said he expected high oil prices would be one issue at the summit, but he did not elaborate on how it would be discussed or what action could be expected.

Schroeder said it was important "to prevent speculative price formation by means of market transparency," although he did not elaborate on how that might work.

"There must be more openness," he told reporters in Savannah before travelling on to Sea Island.

Speaking of his meeting with Canada's prime minister, Bush voiced hope that US-Canadian disputes over softwood lumber trade and Canadian beef imports halted because of mad-cow disease would be resolved quickly. But Martin later told reporters that while Bush seemed committed to resolving these disputes, "I continue to show frustration at how long this is taking".

On Iraq, three recent developments have helped to defuse controversy among allies: the forming of an interim government, Bush's fence-mending trip to Europe last week, and the revised Security Council resolution defining the new Iraqi government's power.

"There were some who said we'd never get one," Bush told reporters.

He said the new resolution was a way of "saying to the world that members of the Security Council are interested in working together to make sure that Iraq is free and peaceful and democratic."

Bush invited a group of Middle Eastern leaders to tomorrow's session - including the new Iraqi president, Ghazi al-Yawer.